His return, whenever it happens, should improve the Clippers’ defense, Rivers said. They currently have the 14th defensive rating in the NBA, allowing opponents to score 107.8 points per 100 possessions.

“Coming into the year, we kept thinking, especially end of the games, having Avery (Bradley) and Luc and Pat (Beverley) on the final possession, defensively, you like your chances.

“(Mbah a Moute) is just another shut-down guy. It’s nice when you don’t have to scheme, when you just say, ‘Hey, Luc, guard that guy, Avery guard that guy…’ Then it makes the other three guys better defensive players. Without that, you scheme more, and I don’t think any coach wants to scheme. You’d rather just have five guys guarding five guys and playing defense, but you know you can’t do that. We’ve got to have some of the offensive guys who aren’t great defensive guys on the floor, and you have to cover for them. Luc would help that.”

Luc Mbah A Moute, sidelined with a sore knee for most of this season, is out on the practice court putting up some shots. A good sign? pic.twitter.com/wKNFXI4Qfx

The gearheads next door at the L.A. Auto Show might appreciate the get-up-and-go on the Clippers’ roster that took on the Miami Heat on Saturday night at Staples Center.

“We have a few high-motor guys,” assistant coach Rex Kalamian said. “Montrezl (Harrell), Pat Beverley, Avery Bradley — we have a few guys that bring it every single day, every game. And your team definitely picks up on that.”

Think, maybe, of a Dodge Challenger or a Ford Mustang — or Kevin Garnett or Russell Westbrook.

Kalamian does.

“I was fortunate enough to be around Russell Westbrook for six years, and I saw his influence on a team because every practice and every game, he was prepared to play his hardest,” said Kalamian, who joined the Clippers this season after spending three seasons working as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors, and before that in Philadelphia, Denver, Minnesota, Sacramento and, yes, Oklahoma City.

“Even going back to Kevin Garnett, who I was with in Minnesota, watching those types of players prepare to practice and play is impressive.

“I would say that our three guys, and maybe even a few more on our team, have that type of energy,” Kalamian added. “They just love to play basketball and whether it’s a practice day or a game day, they come out and they prepare to play their hardest and I think that other guys pick up on that.”

TRAVELING

There’s keeping your feet moving — and there’s the NBA schedule.

The Clippers are in the thick of it. For 17 consecutive games — from Nov. 15-Dec. 17 — they won’t have played consecutive games in the same arena.

It’s all part of the job, Clippers forward Danilo Gallinari said.

“It’s the NBA season, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” he said at Friday’s practice, as the Clippers regrouped after returning from a 2-2 road trip. “It could be two days, back-to-back, one day … you’ve just to focus on the next game.

“The schedule can be nice sometimes, sometimes it’s not nice, but it’s just the NBA season.”

Mirjam Swanson covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. Previously, she wrote about LeBron James and the rest of the Dream Team at the 2004 Olympics (where, yes, they took bronze) and Tiger Woods’ last (for now) major championship. Most recently, she’s covered city government, education and the occasional bear in a backyard.